The invention relates to a reed for beating-up the weft yarn into the cloth woven on a loom. The reed typically includes a plurality of spaced flat wire dents arranged in a row defining spaces between the dents through which the warp yarn ends pass. During the weaving, the reed oscillates to and fro to push the recently inserted weft yarn into the cloth at the fell of the cloth. The reed must be able to withstand rapid cyclic beat-up motions during weaving.
With the advent of high speed shuttleless looms, the speed at which the reed must oscillate is dramatically increased. Furthermore, the inertial forces produced by the prior conventional reed constructions have rendered many conventional constructions unsuitable for high speed shuttleless loom operation. All of which have required that considerable attention be given to the construction of reeds for jet looms.
For a shuttleless jet type loom in which the weft yarns are introduced into the shed of the cloth by means of a jet of gaseous fluid, such as air, the dents are provided with recesses, such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,116,243 which form a channel for the gaseous fluid and weft yarn carried thereby. The metal dent needs are heavy and the widened recess portion of the dent is susceptible to imparting heavy drag on the yarn passing thereagainst.
Thus, not only are reeds for shuttleless looms driven at higher speeds, but the reeds by necessity of the shapes of the dents become heavier. In the case of water jet looms, the water often has a corrosive effect on the wire dents.
The forces encountered by the individual dents of a reed which push the weft forward into the fell during beat-up of the cloth are substantial when considering the speed and resultant forces involved. The high speed cyclic nature of the movement of the reed during beat-up also attenuates the forces on the individual dents of the reed.
The lowering of inertial forces by providing more lightweight subassemblies, such as the reed frame, for looms particularly shuttleless high speed looms, is one to which considerable attention needs to be given in order to meet the demands of high speed weaving technology.
Accordingly, an important object of the present invention is to provide a lightweight reed for a shuttleless high speed loom having reduced inertial forces without loss in structural strength.
Still another important object of the present invention is to provide a plastic profiled dent for a lightweight reed having reinforcement for beat-up on the loom.
Still another important object of the present invention is to provide a dent for a reed which makes assembly of the reed more simplified and accurate.
Yet another important object is to provide a dent for a reed offering less resistance to the passage of warp yarn ends passing between the dents.
Still another important object of the present invention is to provide a plastic dent strip for forming a reed which includes self-locking features such that adjacent heddle strips interlock with each other to align themselves in the reed frame.
Still another important object of the present invention is to provide a reed having a number of plastic dent strips which include profiled sections having a tunnel forming recess therein wherein the recess area is reinforced for beating-up the cloth.
Still another important object of the present invention is to provide a plastic dent strip having a tunnel forming recess having self-aligning features interlocking the dent strips with one another so that an aligned continuous tunnel is formed across the reed.